So I need to make a stack of audio CDs. I ask everyone what's the best assembly software and they say CD Architect. I ask everyone what's the best drive and they say Plextor. I ask what are the best discs and they say Taiyo Yuden.

So I buy all this stuff and I find out that the TY discs aren't on the Plextor PX-800a compatibility list (who knew there were compatibility lists?) and the CD Architect cannot talk to the Plextor drive. And Sony won't tell me what drives their software is compatible with.

This, like so many things is the world of computers, is a nightmare.

Does anyone know a good burner I should get that can reliably work with my CD Architect software and all these stacks of TY CD-R media I bought?

The CD authoring program you purchased may not, as you state. Who did you ask that recommended that program? I can honestly say in all my many many years of burning, I have never, not even once had anyone mention that software.

Well, this is probably one of the manifestations of stupid. I used the "ask everyone" expression as a verbal shorthand to denote human and nonhuman contact; in the case of the software, reviews. Which I know aren't reliable but I wasn't able to find any software that did what CD Architect does -- to lay out a cd in logical fashion and save or burn it. Except that CD Architect doesn't do it either.

I spoke rashly and wrongly and I apologize.

Sony just told me that they have "no issues" with the Plextor drive ... which could mean mine is the only one in the world that doesn't work, or it could mean that they aren't concerned about it.

But okay, you see how confused I am. Is there a better software I could use? I'd be real happy to use the CD Architect to "burn" an iso that I'd burn into cds with Nero, but I can't figure out a way to do that except to burn a disc, take an image from that, and burn Nero discs from the image -- including all the errors from the first disc.

The problem with the 800A is it isn't a "real" Plextor, meaning an original Plextor in-house design based on a Sanyo chipset and featuring Plextor-only features like GigaRec, PowerRec, etc. The last one of those was the 760-series, and Taiyo Yuden CD-R was indeed on the recommended list for those. The 800A is, if I recall correctly, an NEC-Optiarc drive with Plextor's name slapped on it, and TY CD-R is not on NEC's recommended media chart. NEC recommends Mitsubishi CD-R.